Tech-Optimism Debunked by Evgeny Morozov? (VIDEO)
In this excellent, thought-provoking documentary Evgeny Morozov (@EvgenyMorozov, author of The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom) punctures the Utopian idea that Internet is somehow by default and inherently a Freedom- & Democracy Enabler. Mr. Morozov is placed inside a digital Panopticon and reacts to the short video’s and sound bites projected there-on.
The questions Evgeny Morozov poses, his critical stance regarding Tech-Optimism and the issues he rises are very legitimate: Is Social Media really bringing us together? Or is the Filter Bubble merely strengthening our (narrow) visions, thoughts and opinions? Is the internet a free floating island, isolated from politics?
One of his gripes against the Tech-Optimists is that they seem to leave out of their equation any political, cultural and economic aspects needed for / impairing societal change and progress, as if all our problems and challenges are somehow fixed by becoming a cyborg or as if a distant regime can be overthrown by collectively changing the colour of our social media avatar. (His stance is even more interesting if we take into consideration the UK Governments’ plans to censorize twitter and Blackberry Messaging “Pinging” in case of riots or public demonstrations.)
Evgeny’s is a fresh and different philosophy, going straight against the current online, real-time “social” Echo Chamber and one that merits further thought and debate. A (lone?) voice of dissent that needs to be heard.
If you happen to have some spare time I really recommend watching and sharing this documentary – of special note are his takes on Ray Kurzweil (Singularity / Cyber-Optimism), WikiLeaks and Google vs Baidu -
as it will challenge your assumptions about where society and tech(nology) are heading and how they (should or should not) influence one another.
Evgeny Morozov: The End of the Internet-Utopia
This documentary aired last week on Dutch Public Television, for background information please check here » http://www.hollanddoc.nl/kijk-luister/documentaire/e/tegenlicht-evgeny-morozov.html
Post maintained by Anibal do Rosario
Flash is een blijvertje (Opinie)
Flash gaat nergens heen, en kan en zal prima naast HTML 5 blijven bestaan.
Dat is in een notendop mijn repliek op de post van eFocus internetstrateeg Freek Bijl (BijlBrand) To Flash… or not to Flash. Oftewel: Flash wordt overbodig? Dit dan weer naar aanleiding van de onthulling van de iPad, nu alweer een maand geleden, en het controversiële besluit van Apple om daar geen Flash op mogelijk te maken.
Volgens Freek en vele anderen -voornamelijk Apple adepten- Het Einde Van Flash, omdat de iPad uiteraard allesoverheersend zal zijn. Kijkende naar de feiten denk ik dat dat nog wel eens mee zou kunnen vallen. Zie ook mijn eerdere column over Apple iPhone / iOS versus Google Android: Thoughts on the future and past of Mobile (Applications).
Hoe dan ook, het zijn interessante tijden voor een ieder die zich zoals ondergetekende met internet en mobile bezig houdt en Freek’s prikkelende vraag heeft een interessante discussie op gang gebracht, dus voor wat meer context en meningen, check BijlBrand! ;) Hieronder in ieder geval een cross-post van mijn gedachten, welke ik ook daar in de comments heb achtergelaten:
Mijn eerste gedachte: Zucht, ook hier dus een HTML óf Flash is DE toekomst verhaal… Alsof het web -of onze wereld- bestaat uit technologieën die elkaar direct en volledig vervangen (zie ook: radio > tv > internet), beetje plat, maar goed dit terzijde.
Wat ik een beetje mis in je analyse zijn zaken zoals impact die de huidige HTML 5 voorstel zou hebben op Net Neutraliteit, het Open Web principe, et cetera: Flash is uiteindelijk een proprietary format van Adobe, HTML 5 biedt ons een unieke kans om een ware Open Standaard voor video te introduceren.
Gezien het gegeven dat video een onlosmakelijk onderdeel van het web is geworden (en één waar ze in eerste aanleg niet voor gebouwd is, maar dat is een ander verhaal), houdt deze ontwikkeling rechtstreeks verband met het wel of niet verwezenlijken van het ideaal om het internet open, neutraal en democratisch te houden.
Zo heeft de Free Software Foundation onlangs bij Google bepleit om een variant van de On2 codec vrij te geven: http://webwereld.nl/nieuws/65237/google-gevraagd-videocodec-te-open-sourcen.html
Probleem bij HTML 5 video -zoals je wellicht weet- is dat Mozilla (die van Firefox)
uit principe niet de video-tag ondersteund, omdat de codecs die daar nu voor geïmplementeerd worden niet op Open Standaarden gebaseerd zijn.
Een open standaard voor de video-tag met support van alle grote(re) browserbouwers (Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera en IE) zou een van de vele benodigde nagels aan de kist van flash kunnen zijn. Maar misschien ook wel niet.
Wat ik wél zeker weet is dat de iPad absoluut “0” impact zal hebben op bovenstaande ontwikkelingen, je dicht het beestje -kijkend naar wat voor een gadget het is en marktpotentieel- namelijk toch echt een te grote rol toe.
Om het te onderbouwen: Ja Firefox met flash is een aanslag op je werkgeheugen, but then again, iTunes van Apple is dat ook. Zo heb ik laatst voor de leuk bij de herinstallatie van mijn laptop het browsen een aantal weken zonder Flash gedaan en kan je melden: die ubiquitious blauwe legoblokjes maken het er allereerst niet een betere browse ervaring op.
Vergeet niet dat de iPhone een mobieltje is en om die reden het ontbreken van Flash geen groot gemis is geweest.
De iPad on the other hand, moet tussen mobiel en notebook in gaan zitten en meer een leisure apparaat worden die je dus ook voor alledaagse dingen gaat gebruiken en wellicht in sommige huishoudens die het kunnen betalen de netbook/notebook gaat vervangen. In zo’n gebruikersscenario, die dus regulier gebruik benaderd, wordt het een heel ander verhaal kan ik je melden…
En wat te denken van al die online blader-apps (vaak gratis kant-en-klaar via een WordPress plug-in te publiceren en voor 99,9 % van de internetpopulatie toegankelijk, dit in tegenstelling tot het ontwikkelen van een duur touch-app voor de iPhone OS voor een specifieke markt), Flashgames, chat applicaties en what have you.
Ontwikkelaars vinden de AIR en Flex koppeling met Flash daarbij ook niet vervelend en de zo geliefde tweetdeck en Seesmic draaien daar ook op. Oh, en dan is er ook nog Silverlight wat met Olympische Spelen en andere sportevenementen ook in de US flink gepushed wordt/is.
Kortom Flash en aanverwante technologieën zijn zo verweven met alles wat interactief / online is, dat meneer Jobs écht met een wonder moet komen wil dat veranderen in de komende pakweg 5 jaar.
Nog één laatste argument: iets meer dan anderhalf miljard mensen hebben momenteel toegang tot het internet, wil de iPad relevant zijn als client die zo disruptive is dat flash gaat wankelen, dan denk ik dat we kunnen stellen dat de penetratie op ongeveer een half miljard (een derde) moeten zitten wil ze enige impact maken op ontwikkelaars en hen bewegen om flash uit te sluiten en dan nog denk ik dat dat een zeer onwaarschijnlijk scenario is, gezien al het bovenstaande.
Doe hier zelf mee aan de discussie: To Flash… or not to Flash. Oftewel: Flash wordt overbodig?
Discuss: Why Social Media Agencies Are The Emperor’s New Clothes (Column)
“There’s demand in the marketplace for creating a new type of agency,” said Sean Corcoran, an analyst with Forrester Research. “The question is whether that’s viable long term.”
Because it can touch everything from Communications to Marketing to Customer Service to Product Development, Social Media has created a muddied playing field that some see as ripe for creating agency opportunities …
Now the question for social media firms is whether they’ll translate the short-term demand for Facebook pages, Twitter campaigns and audits of social chatter about a brand into a long-term strategic business … Otherwise what they’re offering clients will quickly become the domain of established agencies in Public Relations, Advertising and Digital.
The jury is still out on this one
First of all let me state clearly that there is no silver bullet with regards to whether a Digital Agency or a PR outfit should be leading the charge when it comes to Social Media.
Furthermore, one size certainly doesn’t fit all when it comes to whether your company or organization should be utilizing Social Media or not, and if so with whom.
Mitch Joel (@MitchJoel), from Twist Image (Canada), also weighed in on this subject:
Going back to that quirky quote from AdWeek, it’s like saying, “we can help you build a Facebook fan page or a Twitter profile, but if you need a microsite or some banners to promote it, you’re best off calling a Digital Marketing agency.”
Newsflash: Social Media is Digital Marketing.
Sorry to break this news to the Social Media Gurus and social media agencies of the world. You can dance around this statement all you want … let’s face it: all Social Media strategy and first-contact happens in the online channels.
The results of that strategy and activity may filter through how an organization communicates, markets, handles after-care or customer service, but Social Media starts and lives in the Digital Marketing channel….
And, if it does live in the Digital Channel, but as a social media agency you can’t help your client also build both the platforms and presence online, what does that say about your skill level?
Let’s not make it bigger than it is.
Like a strong direct marketing strategy, advertising campaign or affiliate program, Social Media is one spoke in the marketing wheel (it just looks more shiny than the other spokes because platforms like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are new and exciting).
In fact, Social Media is much more like a spoke in the Digital Marketing wheel. This doesn’t mean it should be diminished, but to think that a strong Digital Marketing shop doesn’t have the abilities or capabilities to lead Social Media is downright silly and unfounded.
A great Digital Marketing agency that truly meets the clients’ needs is one that can develop the digital strategy and then execute on it (the design, content, technology, marketing and communications).
It’s going to be interesting to see what unique offerings these social media agencies bring to the brand table that the Digital Marketing agencies were missing.”
Read the whole post and the comments over at Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel at Twist Image: Social Media Gurus – That Old Chestnut (Who Owns Social Media?)
Challenges for Businesses with regards to Social Media
A few days back Liz Pullen(@nwjerseyliz) tweeted the following on twitter (see screen grab below):
I tweeted in reply that Social Media on a personal level doesn’t scale:
It´s a scientifically proven fact that there’s only so much meaningful interaction, friends, interconnectivity, sharing, status updates and ReTweets one can take at any given moment in time.
And this isn’t even taking time management or life hacking into account; strictly speaking there’s (Dunbar’s number) a bio/psychologically maximum amount of social interaction and stimulus our brains can handle – be sure to keep an eye on the latest Oxford findings regarding this.
What this also means today is that people in general -becoming ever more acquainted with Social Media and most of its apparent benefits & setbacks- are increasingly critical about whom they connect, or “friend”, with online (quality/potential Vs. quantity). And, as a result, how much time they spend with them on any given social network.
The analogy goes that you could compare it to standing in a café socialising with friends and familiars; you wouldn’t appreciate someone breaking in the conversation or party (with a commercial message) without introducing properly first.
These developments have spin-off effects for your brand in this space as well.
Think about this for a minute.
Now, let’s take a look at the slight nugget called Legal, as Clorox has done:
That could help explain why the marketer has taken the unusual step of advertising for a full-time in-house legal counsel to focus on social media — a rather surprising sign of how entrenched social-media marketing is becoming even for relatively established household products.
Currently, having such expertise in-house and full-time at a marketer is rare, said Jack Greiner, an attorney with Cincinnati’s Graydon Head & Ritchey, one of the few attorneys on LinkedIn to list social-media as a specialty. “It’s the first I’ve heard of it,” he said.
“Social-media channels are a growing focus for consumer communication and stakeholder engagement for our brands and company,” a Clorox spokesman said in an e-mail.
“As a newer communication channel, the application of existing laws to this medium is evolving. For those reasons and the rapid pace of communication in the Web 2.0 world, we’re seeking an attorney to focus on social media as well as talent rights.”
The primary duties, he said, are to clear and procure intellectual property rights regarding production and distribution of advertising, including Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Recording Artists issues, consumer privacy and video licensing.
Comment addendum by Antone Johnson:
Regarding social media policies, I think it’s helpful to divide the universe of communications into two distinct buckets.The first category is the everyday online chatter by thousands of individual employees, which may or may not touch on the company’s business or products.
This kind of communication can and should be regulated by a well-thought-out social media policy, enforced by HR and/or IT in the same way they enforce other employment-related and IT usage policies. (A little training during employee orientation goes a long way.)
The second category is messaging from authorized corporate communicators:
Senior executives, PR, MarCom, Customer Care, Community Managers on online forums, etc. A social media policy alone isn’t enough; these folks need individualized, timely, thoughtful legal guidance.
Their statements can and will be taken as the corporation’s official view of things. Social media make it easier than ever to make misstatements that can be used against the marketer as “Exhibit A” in litigation.
This is particularly true for large corporations, which are perceived as having deep pockets and become targets for class action plaintiffs’ lawyers and government regulators.
As the quotes above underline, social media expertise should occupy two seats: one inside the advertiser itself (I’ll get back to this in more detail later on) and one inside dedicated Digital Agencies, since, inherent to their DNA, they’re better suited at this than pure traditional Agencies are right now.
Dedicated social agencies can’t create effective Social Strategies
Though I’m all for entrepreneurship and an avid fan of innovation, I’m quite sceptical about yet another specialist niche branch forming, (viral seeding agencies anyone?) be it inside or independent of traditional or Digital Agencies: yes, I’m looking at you, social media agency.
Especially since in this specific case the subject matter ties so close –too close- with the core business of any organization: i.e., taking for your customers / prospects / leads.
Why exactly is your company contracting a newly formed “social agency” to do the crucial interaction with these people in such a delicate environment (sometimes volatile even)? A few more questions:
- Can this freshly formed organization handle the scale 6, 12, or 18 months from now (community management, moderating in real-time 24/7, mob behaviour even)?
- What about legal liability (see the quote above from Jack Greiner) when it comes to international operating brands on Facebook?
- What about accountability (towards customers/end-users, partners and B2B clients), lead follow-ups, customer retention and so on?
- What about integration with the online display, SEA campaigns and the mini site?
- And what about the connection with the core brand values “as seen on TV”?
- Do they understand the finer intricacies of your business goals on the one hand vs. customer service & needs on the other hand?
Make no mistake about this, many industry thought leaders are (the dotcom bubble freshly in the back of their mind no doubt) rightfully questioning this trend of social agencies and self-proclaimed guru’s:
Do they even know your competitors, the field your operating in, the challenges you face, regulations, et cetera? You know; the stuff any Marketing Agency worth their salt actually takes into account before helping you set a long term strategy? If so, then why set up a separate one-trick-pony-entity instead of integrating it in the (digital) media mix? It just doesn’t add up.
Social Media is Anthropology, meets PR, meets Customer Service, meets Sales, meets DM, meets Sociology, meets Business Intelligence, meets Legal, meets… what-have-you, all for the greater good of meeting Business Objectives at the end of the day.
So. Exactly what are the business credentials of the people employed in this social agency, apart from having set up a Facebook fan page for their local small-town barbershop?
[Note: I’m not talking about credentials in a “certified social media company” kind of way, nowadays most of us are aware that in IT -for the most part- certificates (Google AdWords and the like notwithstanding) don’t prevent disasters, nor do they guarantee a pleasurable partnership or outcome. How many big IT projects had multiple Black Belts overseeing certified .NET implementing professionals and failed big time?]
Getting and staying involved in Social Media isn’t the same as setting up a one-way Interruption Marketed Advertising campaign for six weeks and it isn’t action based Sales Promotion with a short term focus either.
Nor is it about hiring a Web Care Team after the damage has been done in order to clean up the online response on a subpar product coupled with bad customer service.
UPC (Cable giant) has felt this here in The Netherlands as recently they’ve been indexed as the company with the worst customer service in a research conducted by the Customer Insights Center from the University of Groningen, intelligence agency MIcompany and Dutch research firm MetrixLab.
This despite being an innovator online by being the first Dutch company to deploy a Web Care Team with varying success. Sweet Irony to some, Social Media in full effect to others (as sharing bad customer experiences has become ubiquitous).
Social Media is a mindset ideally to be adopted throughout the whole organization, just like company values. Larger organizations will have to act on this in the coming decade.
Joseph Jaffe: In my opinion, this isn’t about tactics or platforms….it’s about a mindset shift. Commitments versus Campaigns. Retention versus Acquisition. Conversation versus Communication. And in the former cases, we’re dealing with decidedly post-marketing platforms that are – for the most part – decidedly brand unfriendly.
It’s an ongoing process, not to be automated.
Au contraire; it’s actually about interacting with human beings(!) in a passionate and authentic way, all whilst keeping the mutual interests of the organization, as well as the customer in mind. Though balance to strike.
Earned Media vs. Paid Media (Dealing with The Shift)
Who knows? Maybe over time they’ll embrace your efforts and your brand.
Then again, maybe they won’t because a few days back your Call Centre Manager was focussed more on her maximum allowed Average Conversation Duration Per Service Employee instead of solving the problem of a frustrated customer. So, said customer has started a flame blog, which TechCrunch has picked up, turning it into a trending topic on twitter overnight, which in turn has been indexed by Google in less than an hour, effectively making your SERP turn off potential customers and would-be B2B partners, despite that carefully planned and crafted Super Bowl Ad…
As you can see, Social Media is much as it has always been in real life actually, with the critical difference that these interactions between your brand and “them” are online, out in the open, for all to see, to monitor, to be spread in real-time and archived. Forever (or until Singularity at the very least).
This, combined with the fact that your organization has to structurally change internally for any meaningful long-term results, make this quite a complicated and challenging era, as you cannot afford not to be at least somewhat social, yet it can backfire significantly when implemented in the wrong way. Or with short-term focused expectations from shareholders, the board or senior management for that mather. Oh, and I’ve left the whole Social Media ROI debate out of the equation.
Still convinced that fancy social agency is well equipped and worth the check/PO?
Possible solutions: Internalizing the knowledge
The point I’m trying to make is that these new upstarts are either interested in making a quick buck over the back of you and your customers, or they’re focusing on the “What?” (“Which social tools should we deploy? YouTube or twitter?” -in other words: operational tactics), instead of focusing on the “Why?” and on what Social Media could mean for you and your customers.
Take heed of the former, and as for the latter, well, benevolent though their intentions may be, know that the way to hell is paved with good intentions…
Notable exception / leading example in this discussion are the Social Media Monitoring companies like Radian6 as they have a very tasty asset, or two actually: hard data and experience.
They’ve been busily beavering away for the past years, before Social Media became de rigour and have actual added value in the partner chain around your project/organization. They have the data, the knowledge and experience to translate social media output into actionable insights.
To my eye the solution is as follows:
Your organization must internalize Social Media as soon as possible -not tomorrow or next week necessarily, but do start as soon as you can (word has it your competitors are already a few laps ahead -sensing the urgency yet?).
Then, drilling further down, you should have one or more internal champions, digital marketers along with their traditional kin, who can sit down at the round table with IT partners, Social Media Monitoring Companies, Digital Agencies & Traditional Agencies alike, and get down to business.
You don’t outsource Sales, you hopefully are not outsourcing your Customer Service* and you definitely should refrain from outsourcing direct contact with your target audience and customers. If you’re not convinced yet, then feel free to take a look at an interesting development over at one of the biggest brands on the planet: Coca Cola are internalizing Social Media as they go .
Ford Motor Company is, arguably, one of the leading big brands in the world when it comes to having garnered considerable achievements in/with Social Media; admittedly having Social Media rock star Scott Monty (@ScottMonty) aboard as an internal accelerator or catalyst as well as a CEO backing him helps a lot. Ford’s Scott Monty has the following take on this topic:
“If you have a dedicated social media agency they need to be well integrated with the rest of your team because none of this stuff stands alone,” said Scott Monty, digital and multimedia communications manager at Ford.
Rather than have a single social media shop, Ford works with several for different needs. It leans on the social skills of OgilvyPR, while also working with Social Media Group and Undercurrent. “This is the year that will separate the pretenders from the practitioners.”
[* In twenty years time we’ll have a jolly great laugh looking back on the days when you actually didn’t help the customer yourself because... err, business books and MBA’s thought us it was the right way, we never questioned its merits out loud towards senior baby boom management and the internet, social media et al didn’t exist to expose this mindset, but I digress...]
Off course, your mileage may vary, depending on whether your organization is strategically focussed on either Cost Leadership, Innovation or Customer Intimacy.
And it could be both Mitch, Scott and many others in our field, are proven wrong over time as, like I said above, the jury is still out on this one.
Speaking of Mitch Joel, he posted the following piece regarding ROI and Social Media:
Richard Binhammer (from Dell‘s Social Media team) gave a presentation and when one of the audience members asked about how Dell measures the ROI of their Social Media strategy, Binhammer responded that ROI was nothing more than an accounting term and probably has little to no place when it comes to measuring the success of any Social Media marketing initiative.
How would that make your clients, team members and supervisors feel?
Binhammer … concluded by saying that he doesn’t think about ROI, rather he looks at the overall business objectives and if Social Media can help him meet those objectives, then that is what is ultimately the most important thing.
Let’s repeat: forget the ROI and look at the business objectives.
In looking at business through this prism, Dell has changed the way they do business and – in doing so – they have made lots of money by being engaged and using everything Social Media that is under the sun.
In a more primal way, they’re focused on using Social Media to meet practical business objectives and not looking at the overall ROI…
Comment addendum:
My argument is not against metrics and measurement as it relates to social media and business. My point is that we sometimes get lost in the forest for the trees….and one step further, some of the traditional metrics and insights need revision when we think about social media and business….but fundamentally we do measure measure and measure more.
Source: Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel at Twist Image: Killing ROI
Conclusion: Due Diligence/Beware the Snake Oil
All in all, the debate regarding ROI in social media and the added value of social media agencies still has yet to give birth to a definite, industry wide accepted outcome, and maybe won’t for some time.
To my eye, all facts point to one conclusion which I’ve summed up in the title of this very column.
Bold statement?
Dunno, like viral agencies we’ve yet to see a yearbook worth of big brand cases produced by dedicated social media agencies that showcase their worth, yet they tend to position themselves with the swagger as though they have seeded viral or social media campaigns with an 80 to 99% success rate…
Should anyone care? Aren’t we “all in it for the money”?
Well, yours truly is not and I’d like to believe most of us are “in it” out of a passion, which happens to provide us with the means of getting food on the table, paying the rent/mortgage, etc.. Make no mistake, I’m an entrepreneur at heart and a positive minded one at that, but with great power comes… (well, you know the drill)
Remember the dotcom bubble bursting less than 10 years ago? We’ve seen what self-proclaimed consultants in green field markets/industries are capable of if left unchecked: wrecking havoc amongst clients eventually seriously damaging everyone in this space.
Sounds farfetched? The Credit Crunch demonstrated to us what happens when an influential industry is left unchecked and nobody calls out the cowboys.
Granted, social media is new, standards are yet to be fully understood, found and implemented. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take pride in our work, our profession, our science, our art. It is a professional responsibility to call out the snake oil sales men.
Perhaps more than anything Social Media is also about the “echo chamber”; about memes being spread. By adding my voice to the ever increasing echo of industry specialists, agencies and bloggers, I hope to amplify the growing consensus that social does not an agency make. That you should be mindful of letting your company in with any self-proclaimed guru or social agency. Due diligence.
This column turned out somewhat longer than expected, so thanks for bearing with me. I will be keeping a close eye on this topic as it continues to evolve.
In the mean time I’m really curious if there’s an angle I might have missed, so feel free to drop a comment below.
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Your Online Identity Hosted In The Browser?
Weave Identity is a very interesting component from Mozilla Labs (of Firefox fame) and a possible disrupting one for the Facebook Connect’s, OpenID’s and OAuth’s of this world:
“Offering a single sign-in solution for the web is currently a hot topic. Google, Yahoo, Facebook, MySpace and countless other sites are all offering to host your identity for you. Many of these key players on the social web are also offering tools to allow third-party sites to let you log in using the identity you have hosted with whoever your provider is – Google through FriendConnect, Facebook through Facebook Connect and Twitter through its recently debuted OAuth-based system. But in the end, who knows how long any of those sites will last? It seems to make more sense to hand these duties off to something more permanent than the hot site of the moment.
That’s where Mozilla’s latest implementation of Weave starts to make sense. You can store your credentials anywhere, including on Mozilla’s servers or your own web server.”
Source: WIRED’s Webmonkey
If the Weave add-on is implemented as a standard feature in the next version of the 2nd largest browser in the world, it stands a reasonable chance of becoming THE default Online Identity Manager/Social Media Passport; allowing you to safely and seamlessly log in to your favourite Social Networks, blogs and communities, across multiple platforms (Windows, Mac OS) and various devices (think Mobile, Netbooks, Thin Clients).
All the while giving you complete and FULL control over your online identity (you can even store your Weave login credentials on your own server!), which positions it directly opposite of the Walled Garden approach that Facebook is fast becoming notorious for.
The ease of use, combined with the fact that your average internet user hasn’t even heard of Google-, Facebook- and Twitter’s Online Identity Management solutions make Firefox Weave a serious threat to the aforementioned parties. After all: Wouldn’t it seem more logical and feel safer for her to let the browser take care of her online identity?
“Something that often goes unsaid in the discussion about online identity is that while most websites right now require usernames and passwords, many people actually use the password manager feature in the browser-effectively turning their browser into a limited identity manager.”
Source: Mozilla Labs
By offering this One-Log-In-To-Rule-Them-AllTM feature as a standard option in the browser, much like Yahoo’s- or Google’s toolbar, a lot of the hassle and security issues associated with web based ID alternatives are removed from the user’s table:
“User experience in general suffers as protocols for federation (e.g. OpenID) involve complex redirects which jump the user from page to page and leave them open to phishing attacks…”
Source: Mozilla Labs
And there’s another major USP that promises a bright future for the Weave project: Firefox is an Open Source initiative, and even though OpenSocial, OpenID & OAuth are Open Source projects as well, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Google and Microsoft are commercial parties with a deep interest into becoming your single sign-in partner, so they can monitor the sites you visit and the time frame in which you did: pure data mining for marketing purposes. In a time where privacy issues are within everyone’s crosshairs, this could become Mozilla’s trump card in the battle for your Online Identity.
Of course, there’s nothing stopping Google (note that they have 300 Million accounts!) from implementing such a feature in Chrome -it’s very own browser- using Friend Connect, or Microsoft from doing the same with their Live toolbar/Live Passport and Internet Explorer. The point is that the former hasn’t yet managed to get any serious foot in the browser market. And though the latter is the current incumbent in browser market share (for now), it has failed for almost 10 years to make it’s .NET Passport/Live ID efforts a true cross-web success, even as younger initiatives from the likes of Facebook and twitter have taken off in the past year or so.
All in all, it’ll be very interesting to see how the developments around Identity Hosting continue to evolve…
[Update: Netlog now accepts Google FriendConnect, more on TechCrunch.]
Als ik de baas was van ING (Column)
Column ING personeelsblad, April 2009: Als ik de baas was… Met Anibal do Rosario
Juist in deze onzeker tijden kun je je als grootbank onderscheiden door de klant van een helder advies te voorzien. Door mee te denken en een stapje verder te kijken. Maar vooral door te doen wat je belooft. Je dienstverlening en product op peil brengen, en daarna pas overgaan tot grootschalige reclamecampagnes. Want de klant van vandaag is extra scherp op de steken die je laat vallen.
Ik zie service verlenen als een kerntaak van de bank en vind dat je dat niet moet willen uitbesteden. Dus zou ik juist meer bankwinkels openen met adviseurs die persoonlijk, op maat gesneden advies geven. Zo krijgt de ING een menselijk, lokaal gezicht. Ook zou ik meer mogelijk maken via internet voor die klanten welke zelfstandig hun bankzaken willen af wikkelen.
Ik zou de bank open gooien voor de klanten en collega’s meer verantwoordelijkheden geven, waardoor de klant écht merkt dat ze direct verder geholpen wordt. Ook zou ik bijvoorbeeld studenten meer perspectief geven op groei binnen de ING.
Als baas zou ik verder onderzoeken hoe we onze klanten en toekomstige klanten kunnen betrekken bij het merk ING door inzet van bijvoorbeeld Sociale Media zoals Hyves en Facebook. Hoe kunnen we onze formulieren en processen duidelijk en korter maken? En hoe geven onze concullega’ s hier invulling aan?
De uitdaging die ik samen met collega’s zou willen aangaan zou zijn: Hoe kunnen we met ING van een Procesgeoriënteerde naar een Klantgecentreerde organisatie groeien, die daadwerkelijk klaar is voor de nieuwe uitdagingen van morgen?
Coaching en training zou ik ook graag naar een hoger niveau willen tillen. Aangezien iedereen ook meer eigen verantwoordelijkheden krijgt, zullen managers minder hoeven aansturen, en zich meer kunnen inzetten voor persoonlijke ontwikkeling.
Met minder marketingbudget kunnen we via internet klanten toch nog op een slimme en doeltreffende manier benaderen. En binnenhalen natuurlijk! Maar dan moeten we ook onze organisatiecultuur durven aanpassen (Google maar eens op Enterprise 2.0). Als we onze dienstverlening aantoonbaar kunnen verbeteren, zullen onze klanten als ware ambassadeurs hun omgeving enthousiasmeren om klant bij ING te worden en kunnen wij onze beloftes vaker waarmaken!
Deze column is ook gepubliceerd in de April 2009 (“Amsterdam in Beweging”) editie van personeelsblad “ING Verder…”. ING Verder… is een Magazine voor alle medewerkers van het ING Callcenter Amsterdam (voorheem Postbank).
Contact Anibal do Rosario
Please feel free to send me a tweet via @AnibalDoRosario or connect on Google Plus. Looking forward to hear from you!
Best,
Anibal
Connect with / Find Anibal on:
- About.me: http://about.me/anibaldorosario
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/AnibalDoRosario
- Google+: https://plus.google.com/100871007103232803068/
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/anibaldorosario
- @AnibalDoRosario Online Cases: http://www.anibaldorosario.com/
Siri Challenges The Way We Interact Online, Enter Web3.1?
“Users’ online lives are becoming more complicated and getting out of control for mainstream users. What if there was an easy way for normal users (non-power users) to ask the Internet to help them.”
This, in a nutshell, is the elevator pitch from US start-up Siri on their secretive CALO (Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes) project.
Together with DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) they’re working on a new, revolutionary web interface, geared not towards the digerati, but the mainstream.
“The CALO project is building an automated assistant to help manage and improve your life. The technology spans all aspects of interaction–natural language processing, speech recognition, and planning and reasoning capabilities–and interfaces with all kinds of systems, such as email and contacts…”
Siri co-founder and Vice President of Engineering, Adam Cheyer. For more, see CNET.
(Credit: SRI International)
If we zoom in a little further on this announcement and take in the background info, we can actually see that Cheyer is actually referring to the Semantic Web or Web 3.0; a place of “Virtual Warmth” where Intelligence at the Interface allows the internet to pro-actively make recommendations to the user, much like a personal assistant:
“The interfaces we use to interact with the world’s information are getting smarter. Web portals gave us someone else’s idea of the content we should see. Then came search engines, which let us tell the system what we want, one query at a time. We are about to see the next wave -intelligence at the interface- in which the system knows about us, our information, and our physical environment. With knowledge about our context, an intelligent system can make recommendations & act on our behalf.”
(Credit: Tom Gruber)
Source (via CNET): Tom Gruber.
Siri itself claims to have her business model and partners in place and is committed to success, though it is common knowledge that that hasn’t stopped other revolutionary tech-driven initiatives from failing in the past: in the end consumers must be convinced and budged to re-learn their online habits AND download and purchase the software.
At this point it seems Siri is ready to release its (possibly) Disruptive Technology during the first half of 2009, and they’ve got some impressive pedigree on board allowing them to become the biggest Nightmare Competitor since Google: their payroll includes engineering and strategic wizards from internet and tech giants/godfathers such as Xerox PARC, Google, NASA, Motorola and Yahoo!.
Microsoft have already revealed some of their amazing achievements with their Surface Computer (interface, see the video above) & their Sphere, and scientists and digerati alike admit that the way we humans interact with the screen (The Office-trashcan-directory-folder Analogy) is anti-natural and the main reason non-power users such as my grandmother still don’t know how to send me an e-mail to stay in touch…
[And let's not forget the major leaps in productivity we could enjoy from innovations like these; the various office suites such as Open Office.org, Microsoft Office and Google Apps are said to be "productivity packages" but I suggest you'd take a stroll into any office anywhere in the world and witness for yourself how counterproductive most professionals are using it, even now in 2008!]
As the social divide grows between tech/web savvy people and those whom are not, I believe that ventures such as these -looming recession notwithstanding- could give a major and much needed boost to not only internet usage and web-app uptake by the mainstream, but to (new forms of) education as well: we really need a more democratic way of spreading (access to) knowledge.
Hopefully these developments shall be one of the many small steps in making the web a truly leveraging force for education, productivity and true interconnection worldwide.
Curriculum Vitae #2 met Internet Strateeg Jim Stolze (Interview door Joris van Heukelom op BlueShots.TV) UPDATE
Naast Jim’s (levens)visie is vooral zijn kijk op de onbewezen effectiviteit, gebrek aan accountability en vooral ook “zend-denken” van de traditionele reclamewereld (doorspoelen naar 06:39) “spot-on”; verplichte kost by all accounts (pun intended). [ let wel: Online kan er m.u.v. Google ook wat van: zie ook deze post van een andere grote denker op dit vlak; Alexander Vanelsas ]
Zeer zeker de moeite waard om naar te luisteren en van te leren dus, vooral ook gezien het feit dat er onder druk van de marktomstandigheden nu dan eindelijk een opmars van Results- en Permission Based Marketing zal plaatsvinden.
Het concept van zijn programma is als volgt: Twee stoelen, twee mensen. In Curriculum Vitae gaat presentator Joris van Heukelom in gesprek met succesvolle professionals met een dynamische carrière. Professionals die beschikken over een interessant CV dat altijd in beweging is. De gast en diens CV zijn voor Joris het materiaal voor een indringend en open minded gesprek. Curriculum Vitae, over de mens achter het cv. Ditmaal in de “blue chair” dus de man achter Marketing Podcast.
[VIDEO VERWIJDERD, ZIE UPDATE ONDERAAN POST]
Normaliter zou ik het betreffende filmpje uiteraard hier ter plekke embedden, echter die functionaliteit laat nog even op zich wachten, of zoals ze het bij BlueShots.TV zelf verwoorden:
“Binnenkort kun je met een embedcode per format altijd de laatste aflevering van je favoriete Blue Shots programma op je website zetten. Beschikbaar per 1 november 2008.”
[Update: De BlueShots video's zijn inmiddels "embedable" echter ze zijn helaas niet aan te passen aan de lay-out van je website: Zodra je probeert om zelf de afmetingen handmatig in de HTML code aan te passen, gaat er een ping naar de servers van BlueShots en co., en wordt het een auto-play film.
Daarnaast kun je niet meer bij de control/mediabay, dus kun je het filmpje vervolgens ook niet stopzetten. Iets wat om meerdere redenen vrij irritant is: De eerste reden is uiteraard dat de gebruiker c.q. bezoeker geen controle heeft over zijn webervaring, en de tweede reden is dat er ongevraagd dataverkeer plaats vindt zonder dat de gebruiker daar om heeft gevraagd.
Aangezien breedbandinternet daarbij nog steeds niet overal (in Nederland) vanzelfsprekend is, kan het daarnaast zijn dat het laden van de homepage van mijn Online Column ontoelaatbaar en onnodig lang gaat duren (omdat ik de laatste tijd nou eenmaal veel video’s hier heb staan, die overigens wel aan de eisen voldoen).
Om de bovenstaande redenen heb ik het betreffende videointerview voorlopig dus verwijderd, totdat er een verbeterde versie van de embedfunctionaliteit wordt aangeboden door het team bij BlueShots.]
Thinking Big About Solutions to Worldwide Poverty (BLOG ACTION DAY 2008)
Coming up with One Big Idea to resolve the issues of Poverty, Child Starvation or any other (in)directly linked anthropocentric crisis such as Global Pollution, Global Warming or the Energy Crisis -Peak Oil- for that matter requires consensus: Is there a problem? And if so at what scale? Consensus.
Professor Hans Rosling‘s infamous presentations at TED back in 2006 and 2007 shook up our Western beliefs of developing and underdeveloped countries, if not challenge the very definition of what we should label as a developing country in the first place, based on the correct context of data. Consensus on the data upon which one can act.
Up until recently (2006) Pluto was known as a planet, nowadays its part of a different celestial class of its own, thousands of scientist worldwide went through several heated debates before consensus crystallized out of the fog of intellectual war.
Just as there had to be worldwide consensus to recognize the scale and possible implications of the root-rot in our global financial systems before tackling that challenge head-on, the same consensus and sense of urgency has to be developed towards Poverty and the other great issues of our time.
But where to start?
First of all I don’t believe that we’re ever going to have this global consensus -at least not with regards towards Poverty, for one simple reason: the very human nature of not acting unless the Danger is imminent and tangible. (The Global Financial Crisis forced our governments to act aptly and directly, because in light of the gargantuan consequences there simply was no other option.)
We shouldn’t attribute this to culture, greed or unwillingness, but to biology and more specifically our inner brain: A small genetic gift from our Prehistoric ancestors, which also seems to be the key to many addictions like drugs, smoking or drinking too much liquor. So, one might argue that we don’t have a software problem, but that ours is more akin to a hardware glitch so to speak.
Yet I do believe that in spite of all the above, we’re not excused of acting. Warren Buffet has once stated that we’ve all picked a lottery ticket at birth and so we should be happy and thankful to be born on the right side of the fence, in the right timeframe: Nothing should be taken for granted.
Whichever worldview you hold, you’re inherently part of an ecosystem and thus you profit -roughly speaking- from trade rights, education, infrastructure, communications, municipal services, place of birth, local history and the like. Not all of this stands on itself and not all of this can be accounted towards just paying taxes; If there’s anything the Financial Crisis has reaffirmed it’s that we’re part of a global village and what we’ve taken so far should be given back in some way or the other…
So in my humble attempt to join and contribute to the global poverty discussion on over 9.000 websites and blogs worldwide today, facilitated by BlogActionDay.org, here’s my part of the solution:
Free Education Through Free Internet Access.
Poverty has many, many causes, but if there’s one thing we can have consensus on, it’s that there’s a significant correlation between low education and poverty: I’m cutting some very rough, sharp corners here, but arguably one could state that education leads to knowledge, leads to opportunity. Not to say that access to education in and of itself is the full solution, but we should at least enable the poor regions in the world to gain access to the levering power of the web, now more than ever.
Just as the economy of the free web has proven to us that you can gain more by giving and sharing unconditionally, the same democratizing effect could apply to underdeveloped regions.
What can we do?
Google has partnered with HSBC to to deliver free internet access to the unconnected world by way of satellite already and they’re running their Project 10^100 contest, so if you happen to have an actionable idea waiting to get funded for a jumpstart, that would be a great start.
The BlogActionDay website has (links to) many more ideas aching to be implemented. Some are free, others are awaiting a micro-contribution; some idea’s are larger than life, whilst others take a more smaller approach. And while we’re at it: Let’s not forget to address poverty in the West too; we mustn’t assume that everyone living in the Developed World is living at acceptable standards and so here too there’s a lot to be done, starting with efforts to create worldwide consensus on Hidden Poverty as well.
Let’s create a Wiki of sorts where thought leaders from around the world can contribute and facilitate ideas to tackle poverty. And since all major social issues require an holistic approach to achieve sustainable results: Let’s give the underdeveloped those much needed 100 Dollar Laptops with free unlimited Wireless Internet access so they can learn, grow and contribute to the solutions themselves and then let’s use that community platform to tackle the Energy Crisis and Global Warming, together!
[This column is dedicated to the cause of Blog Action Day 2008: Poverty on the 15th of October 2008.]
